UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — The politics around custodial deaths
Q1. As per the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) guidelines reiterated in its 2025 suo motu cognizances of custodial deaths (such as the Deoghar, Jharkhand case), within how many hours of the occurrence must the concerned State/UT authority send intimation of a custodial death to the Commission?
- A. 12 hours
- B. 24 hours
- C. 48 hours
- D. 72 hours
Q2. With reference to the change from the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973 to the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023 in respect of deaths in police custody, consider the following statements:
1. The mandatory judicial inquiry into a death in police custody, earlier provided under Section 176(1-A) of the CrPC, has been carried forward as Section 196 of the BNSS, 2023.
2. Unlike the repealed CrPC, the BNSS, 2023 did away with the requirement of any magisterial inquiry into deaths occurring in police custody.
3. Such an inquiry is required to be conducted by a Judicial Magistrate or Metropolitan Magistrate, and not by an Executive Magistrate.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- The mandatory judicial inquiry into a death in police custody, earlier provided under Section 176(1-A) of the CrPC, has been carried forward as Section 196 of the BNSS, 2023.
- Unlike the repealed CrPC, the BNSS, 2023 did away with the requirement of any magisterial inquiry into deaths occurring in police custody.
- Such an inquiry is required to be conducted by a Judicial Magistrate or Metropolitan Magistrate, and not by an Executive Magistrate.
- A. 1 and 3 only
- B. 2 only
- C. 1 and 2 only
- D. 1, 2 and 3
Q3. In matters such as the 2026 Andhra Pradesh custodial-disappearance case, the relative of a missing person approaches the High Court with a writ of habeas corpus. What does a writ of habeas corpus essentially direct?
- A. It directs the authority detaining a person to produce that person before the court and show lawful cause for the detention.
- B. It directs a lower court or tribunal to transfer the record of a case to a higher court for review of its legality.
- C. It commands a public official or authority to perform a public or statutory duty that it has failed to discharge.
- D. It restrains a person from acting in, or holding, a public office to which he is not legally entitled.
Q4. With reference to the legal and institutional framework governing custodial deaths in India, consider the following pairs:
1. Article 21 of the Constitution — Right to life, not to be denied even to a person in custody
2. Section 196, BNSS 2023 — Mandatory inquiry into a custodial death by a Magistrate
3. National Human Rights Commission — Statutory body established under the National Investigation Agency Act
4. D.K. Basu v. State of West Bengal (1996) — Judgment that established the National Human Rights Commission
Which of the pairs given above is/are NOT correctly matched?
- Article 21 of the Constitution — Right to life, not to be denied even to a person in custody
- Section 196, BNSS 2023 — Mandatory inquiry into a custodial death by a Magistrate
- National Human Rights Commission — Statutory body established under the National Investigation Agency Act
- D.K. Basu v. State of West Bengal (1996) — Judgment that established the National Human Rights Commission
- A. 1 and 2
- B. 3 and 4
- C. 2 and 4 only
- D. 1, 3 and 4
Q5. The mandatory inquiry into every case of death, disappearance or rape of a person in police custody is now statutorily required under which one of the following provisions of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023?
- A. Section 35
- B. Section 187
- C. Section 196
- D. Section 173